I want to do a master’s degree but they’re so expensive. Are there grants available?

Funding is available to pursue postgraduate courses within the State and in four approved institutions in Northern Ireland, including University of Ulster and Queen’s University Belfast. Grants for postgraduate courses were axed during the austerity era, but I’m happy to report that grants have been restored in recent years. Student Universal Support Ireland ( Susi.

ie ) is the national grant awarding authority for further and higher education grants. The income calculation is based on gross income from all sources for the previous calendar year. For example, for the coming academic year 2025-2026, applications are assessed on gross income from all sources for the period January 1st-December 31st, 2024.



To get a quick indication of your eligibility for funding, check out the eligibility indicator on their website. Here you’ll also find a full list of income thresholds and associated grant rates. Postgraduate fee contribution grant of up to €4,000 plus a maintenance grant are available.

To be eligible for the fee contribution grant of up to € 4,000 plus a maintenance grant, the total household income must be within the income thresholds . Applications for the academic year 2025-2026 are now open and can be made online, and the Susi support team is available to answer any questions. If you don’t quality, there are also more affordable micro credentials available ( microcreds.

ie ), which are small, accredited courses designed to meet upskilling requirements. They normally cost, on average, about €1,100. However, there are State subsidies for many in areas of skills demand, reducing the cost to about €220-€550.

Back to postgrads: broadly, three are types of funding available to eligible postgraduate students for the next academic year. The first is a “special rate” for postgraduate tuition fees of up to €6,270, plus a maintenance grant to help with living costs. To be eligible, total household income must be under €27,400 for households with less than four dependent children.

A second type of grant is the “postgraduate fee contribution and maintenance grant”. This involves a contribution grant of up to €4,000, plus a maintenance grant. To be eligible, total household income must be under €58,470 for households with less than four dependent children.

Maintenance grants were reintroduced for eligible postgraduate students in Budget 2024 and the amount of the maintenance grant depends on the level of the student’s total household income. A third is the “postgraduate fee contribution grant”, like above, minus the maintenance grant. It provides a contribution grant of up to €4,000.

To be eligible, total household income must be under €64,315 for households with less than four dependent children. To be eligible for funding from Susi for all the above, there are eligibility criteria such as nationality and residency. In addition, students must be “progressing”, which means attending a course that leads to a higher level of qualification than they hold, and are not repeating a year, except in exceptional circumstances.

Students must also attend approved courses in approved institutions (a list can be found on Susi’s website). www.susi.

ie.